Make Something Tasty

Homemade Nuggets

2018 has truly established itself and January is already nearly at a close. How are you all doing with those new year resolutions? I stopped making resolutions years ago, but I do think it’s helpful to reflect on what you have achieved in the previous year and to set some goals for the year ahead. With the little person growing fast and not far from starting solid foods, I’ve been thinking about what we eat and one of my goals for this year is to cook fresh more often. With that in mind, here is a quick, easy and tasty treat that you can make from scratch – homemade nuggets.

My husband has a bit of a thing for turkey dinosaurs – not sure if it is a childhood nostalgia thing, but I thought surely I can make those from scratch. That way we’d know exactly what was in them and it’s a fun thing to have for dinner. Easier said than done! It turns out moulding turkey in to dinosaur shapes is not as straight forward as I thought! So, I went for an easier option and made homemade nuggets instead. They are quick and easy and perfect for popping in the freezer for another day. Here’s how I made mine:

Ingredients

Approximately 80 g Breadcrumbs (I bought ready made golden breadcrumbs in a 230g tub from the supermarket, but you could easily make your own)

Method

This was a bit of an experiment so my instructions aren’t very exact. I roughly cut the turkey and popped it in my food processor with the standard blade, then added the eggs and a dash of flour. I whizzed them up and noticed the consistency was a little too wet to shape so added some more flour, mixing and adding flour until I was happy that the consistency of the turkey meat mixture could be made in to nuggets.

Next I sprinkled the breadcrumbs on to a plate ready for me to roll the mixture in. I carefully removed the blade from the processor (I am a little prone to cutting myself, so better safe than sorry) and took small portions of the mixture rolling them in the breadcrumbs. The mixture was sticky enough for the breadcrumbs to stick but not so wet that it couldn’t be shaped. I placed the nuggets on to the baking trays leaving a gap between the nuggets so they didn’t stick together. I had to top up the breadcrumbs from time to time to make the full batch of nuggets.

Once all the mixture was used, I placed the nuggets in to the oven for 15-20 minutes (until the meat was cooked through). That was it! We tried a few there and then and the rest I left to cool, then placed in to a freezer bag to go in to the freezer for another day.

Variations

The great thing about this recipe is you can completely adapt to your own diet or taste. You can add herbs and spices to flavour the meat, or substitute the meat for vegetables if you’re vegetarian.

What sort of tasty treats do you like to make that are quick and easy?